Thirty-nine years later, family of Highway of Tears victim Gale Weys hopes for answers

Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun06.02.2014

Gale Weys was killed in Clearwater in 1973.Handout
/ Vancouver Sun

Fighting back tears, Colleen MacMillen’s brother Shawn thanked police at the press conference. “We are simply stunned and very grateful for their hard work,” he said.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Shawn MacMillen, brother of murder victim Colleen MacMillen, pauses for a moment during a news conference in Surrey, B.C., Tuesday, September 25, 2012. RCMP say they believe a deceased Oregon inmate is responsible for at least one of the murders along British Columbia's so-called Highway of Tears. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Shawn MacMillen, brother of murder victim Colleen MacMillen, pauses for a moment as RCMP Insp. Gary Shinkaruk, left, looks on during a news conference in Surrey, B.C., Tuesday, September 25, 2012. RCMP say they believe a deceased Oregon inmate is responsible for at least one of the murders along British Columbia's so-called Highway of Tears.Jonathan Hayward
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

A reporter uses her Blackberry to photograph pictures of U.S. citizen Bobby Jack Fowler during a news conference in Surrey, B.C., Tuesday, September 25, 2012. RCMP say they believe a deceased Oregon inmate is responsible for at least one of the murders in British Columbia's so-called Highway of Tears investigation. Fowler is believed to have murdered 16-year-old Colleen MacMillen in August 1974. She last seen leaving home to hitchhike to visit a friend near Lac La Hache, about 300 kilometres south of Prince George in northern B.C.Jonathan Hayward
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

Shawn MacMillen, left, brother of murder victim Colleen MacMillen attends an RCMP news conference in Surrey, B.C., Tuesday, September 25, 2012. RCMP say they believe a deceased Oregon inmate is responsible for at least one of the murders in British Columbia's so-called Highway of Tears investigation.Jonathan Hayward
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

Media film pictures of some of the victims of the E-PANA investigation during an RCMP news conference in Surrey, B.C., Tuesday, September 25, 2012. RCMP say they believe a deceased Oregon inmate is responsible for at least one of the murders in British Columbia's so-called Highway of Tears investigation.Jonathan Hayward
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

Shawn MacMillen, centre, brother of murder victim Colleen MacMillen speaks with RCMP Insp. Gary Shinkaruk during a news conference in Surrey, B.C., Tuesday, September 25, 2012. RCMP say they believe a deceased Oregon inmate is responsible for at least one of the murders in British Columbia's so-called Highway of Tears investigation.Jonathan Hayward
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

The RCMP announced at a press conference in Surrey Tuesday they have identified a suspect in the murder of one of the women, and possibly more, killed along the Highway of Tears in northern and central B.C. nearly 40 years ago.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Colleen MacMillen, 16, was last seen on Aug. 9, 1974 in Lac La Hache, B.C. She was believed to be hitchhiking and is on the Highway of Tears list. Her body was found Sept. 4, 1974 near 100 Mile House. Police confirmed to day that Bobby Fowler was responsible for her death.Handout
/ Vancouver Sun

Gale Ann Weys, 19, was last seen on Oct. 19, 1973 in Clearwater, B.C. She was believed to be hitchhiking to Kamloops. Her body was found Apr. 6, 1974 off the Yellowhead Highway.Handout
/ Vancouver Sun

Pamela Darlington was last seen on Nov. 6, 1973 in Kamloops, B.C. The 19-year-old was believed to be hitchhiking and is on the Highway of Tears list. Her body was found in a city park.Handout
/ Vancouver Sun

Fighting back tears, Colleen MacMillen’s brother Shawn thanked police at the press conference. “We are simply stunned and very grateful for their hard work,” he said.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

The RCMP announced at a press conference in Surrey Tuesday they have identified a suspect in the murder of one of the women, and possibly more, killed along the Highway of Tears in northern and central B.C. nearly 40 years ago.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

This undated photo provided by the Lincoln County District Attorney shows Melissa Sanders, 17, whose body was found in 1992 near Eddyville, Ore. Lincoln County authorities say Bobby Jack Fower, who died in an Oregon prison six years ago and is linked to the 1995 deaths of two teens near Newport, is also a person of interest in the deaths of two teenage girls near Eddyville in 1992. The Oregonian newspaper reports the link between Fowler and the Newport slayings emerged when Canadian police discovered DNA implicating Fowler in the 1974 killing of 16-year-old Colleen MacMillen in British Columbia.Lincoln County District Attorney
/ Handout

This undated photo provided by the Lincoln County District Attorney shows Sheila Swanson, 19, whose body was found in 1992 near Eddyville, Ore. Lincoln County authorities say Bobby Jack Fower, who died in an Oregon prison six years ago and is linked to the 1995 deaths of two teens near Newport, is also a person of interest in the deaths of two teenage girls near Eddyville in 1992. The Oregonian newspaper reports the link between Fowler and the Newport slayings emerged when Canadian police discovered DNA implicating Fowler in the 1974 killing of 16-year-old Colleen MacMillen in British Columbia.Vancouver Sun
/ Handout

Police also said Fowler was a “strong suspect” in the cases of 19-year-old Weys, last seen in Clearwater in 1973, and Pamela Darlington, also 19, whose body was found in the Kamloops area in 1973. There is no DNA proof, though, connecting him to those two victims.

All three women were believed to have been hitchhiking just before they were killed.

Police know Fowler was working as a roofer in Prince George in 1974, but are looking for information about when else the transient man was in B.C.

Weys’ sisters said the development provides them with some relief, but are echoing the RCMP’s request for people to think back to the 1970s for any information — no matter how big or small — about Ways or Fowler.

“Perhaps you found her clothing and didn’t understand what you had found; perhaps you met or worked with this man. Perhaps he assaulted you in some way, made you feel uncomfortable or maybe he was involved in a bar fight,” the statement said.

“If fear has kept you silent, Fowler can no longer hurt you in any way, so please come forward.”

Weys had moved in 1973 to Clearwater from her parents’ Kamloops home, and was working two jobs to save money for a trip to Mexico.

Ron Hagerman was a banker in Clearwater in 1973 and often ate meals in the hotel in the small town on Highway 5, one of three roads linked to the E-Pana cases.

He vividly remembers Gale working in the hotel pub, and seeing her there the night she disappeared in October 1973.

“I know that night she was asking around for someone to drive her to Kamloops, because her parents lived there. No one was going to Kamloops, and so she just walked outside and stuck out her thumb,” Hagerman told The Sun.

Gale, he said, was very outgoing and friendly, and he can recall the grief in the community when she went missing and when her body was found six months later just off Highway 5 in a water-filled ditch.

Hagerman, who is now semi-retired and living in Surrey, does not recall seeing a man who looked like Fowler in the pub that night.

He said he still thinks about Gale, and wishes he had offered her that ride to Kamloops. “She’d just make you smile. She seemed to get along with absolutely everybody.”

The Sun produced a special report on The Highway of Tears case (vancouversun.com/news/vanished) in 2009, but little information was available about Weys.

Her sisters said she was the second of nine children in her family, and was a funny, protective older sibling, a good student, a Girl Guide leader, a volunteer with special-needs children, and a lifeguard and swimming instructor.

“She was a tomboy, fiercely independent and enjoying all types of outdoor adventure and activities,” the statement said. “(Her) life was taken from her — and she from us — violently, painfully and abruptly.”

Fowler was ruled out as a suspect in eight of the 18 E-Pana cases, but is a person of interest in the remaining ones.

He was known to travel extensively through the U.S. in old cars and had a criminal record for violent offences. He is also a suspect in the murders of four young women in Oregon in the 1990s. Police received more than 100 tips in the 24 hours after they appealed to the public for information about Folwer. Anyone with a tip is asked to call 1-877-543-4822.

E-Pana by the numbers:

— 726 boxes of evidence to that was thoroughly search for the 10 cases

— 1,413 persons of interest investigated, and almost 90 per cent have been eliminated as suspects

— 750 DNA samples collected

— 100 plus polygraph tests conducted

— 2,500 people interviewed

— 17,984 investigative inquiries to pursue: 75 per cent of those have been done.

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